Helsinki (27.02.2015 - Heikki Jokinen) The unemployment rate is now 8.8 per cent, up slightly from 8.5 per cent in January 2014.
According to the latest employment figures of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy the number of unemployed people in Finland went up by 32,000 since January last year. There are now 359,600 registered unemployed persons in Finland.
Unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 now total 47,900. This is some 5,000 more than that for the same time the year before.
And the number of those who have been unemployed for more than a year also rose. Now that figure is 101,500, which is 16,000 more than in January 2014. Unemployed people over 50 years of age total 131,700. That makes 11,200 more than one year ago.
Temporary lay-offs are also up. At the end of January the number of temporarily laid off persons was 44,000, which is 4,000 higher than in January last year.
The number of persons engaged in employment administration services that serve to break or ease the unemployment cycle, was 121,800 at the end of January, 4,100 more than in January of the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, preparatory training for working life, work and training trials and self-motivated studies. Altogether, 4.6 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.
The figures from the Ministry of Employment and the Economy record the number of people registered officially as unemployed job seekers at employment offices.
Statistics Finland conducts its own Labour Force Survey. According to their findings the unemployment rate in January was 8.8 per cent, having been 8.5 per cent in January of the year before.
”In January 2015, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 66.7 per cent, having been 67.0 per cent one year earlier. The employment rate for men fell by 1.0 percentage point from last year’s January to 66.3 per cent. Women's employment rate was 67.2 per cent and it increased by 0.5 per cent compared with January 2014”, Statistic Finland summarizes.